The Arts Club Theatre
Encyclopedia
The Arts Club Theatre Company is a professional theatre
company in Vancouver
, British Columbia
, Canada
. The Arts Club was founded in 1958 originally as a private club until 1964, when the group became the Arts Club Theatre Company and established itself at a theatre on Seymour Street in Downtown Vancouver. Major themes from this company are new works, comedies, musicals, drama
, and revues, with an emphasis on developing Canadian talent in productions appealing to the general public.
Through the 1960s the Arts Club presented about 6 shows annually, most of which were foreign, light comedies. It was not established as a professional company until Bill Millerd was appointed director in 1972 and initiated year-round operations. Millerd achieved successes with a wide variety of plays: the classic Journey's End
; Griffiths' Comedians
starring Brent Carver
; and a spectacularly long run with the musical Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris
.
In 1979, the Arts Club expanded to include performances at the 450-seat Granville Island Stage on Granville Island
and, in 1983, acquired a third space next door, the 250-seat Revue Theatre. The Seymour Street Stage closed in 1991, but in 1998 the Arts Club took over operations at the restored 650-seat Stanley Theatre (renamed the Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage
in 2005), a former movie theater
. Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage opened with Swing, followed by Hamlet
in 1998.
and Ruth Nichol was first featured at the Revue Cabaret. In October of 1995, the Revue Cabaret closed as a cabaret style theatre and reopened as the New Revue Stage. Then in 1997, the New Revue Stage went to Vancouver TheatreSports League until February of 2010 when Arts Club reclaimed and redesigned the theatre to present new works suitable at an intimate space.
, a newly renovated art deco theatre, beautifully updated, a 650-seat house that will be home to musicals such as My Fair Lady, Swing and Sweeney Todd, revitalized classics such as Hamlet, and comedies ranging from Easy Money to Art. The restoration of the venue received a 1999 City of Vancouver Heritage Award.
Millerd is a Governor of the National Theatre School of Canada and has received recognition with the UBC Alumni of Distinction Award, Jessie Richardson Theatre Award for Career Achievement and the Order of Canada in 1994. Today, he is the longest-serving artistic director in Canadian theatre.
, Janet Wright
, Lally Cadeau
, Nicola Cavendish
, Morris Panych
, Michael Bublé
, Ann Mortifee
, and Michael J. Fox
.(Henighan, 2000)
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
company in Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
, British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. The Arts Club was founded in 1958 originally as a private club until 1964, when the group became the Arts Club Theatre Company and established itself at a theatre on Seymour Street in Downtown Vancouver. Major themes from this company are new works, comedies, musicals, drama
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
, and revues, with an emphasis on developing Canadian talent in productions appealing to the general public.
History
The Arts Club Theatre Company, Vancouver, opened in February 1964 with a production called Light Up the Sky. The theatre was established by Otto Lowy, Yvonne Firkin and others on the second floor of a gospel hall at 1181 Seymour Street in Vancouver. It featured a flexible seating space accommodating 125-200 persons.Through the 1960s the Arts Club presented about 6 shows annually, most of which were foreign, light comedies. It was not established as a professional company until Bill Millerd was appointed director in 1972 and initiated year-round operations. Millerd achieved successes with a wide variety of plays: the classic Journey's End
Journey's End
Journey's End is a 1928 drama, the seventh of English playwright R. C. Sherriff. It was first performed at the Apollo Theatre in London by the Incorporated Stage Society on 9 December 1928, starring a young Laurence Olivier, and soon moved to other West End theatres for a two-year run...
; Griffiths' Comedians
Comedians (play)
Comedians is a play by Trevor Griffiths, set in a Manchester evening class for aspiring working-class comedians. It was first performed at the Nottingham Playhouse on 20 February 1975, in a production directed by Richard Eyre. The cast included Jonathan Pryce as the main character, Gethin Price,...
starring Brent Carver
Brent Carver
Brent Carver is a Canadian actor.Carver is known for a variety of stage and film roles, including The Wars, Kronborg: 1582, Lilies, Larry's Party, Elizabeth Rex, Millennium, Shadow Dancing, and Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love...
; and a spectacularly long run with the musical Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris
Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris
Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris is an American musical revue of the songs of Jacques Brel.-Original Off-Broadway Production:...
.
In 1979, the Arts Club expanded to include performances at the 450-seat Granville Island Stage on Granville Island
Granville Island
Granville Island is a peninsula and shopping district in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It is located in False Creek directly across from Downtown Vancouver's peninsula, under the south end of the Granville Street Bridge....
and, in 1983, acquired a third space next door, the 250-seat Revue Theatre. The Seymour Street Stage closed in 1991, but in 1998 the Arts Club took over operations at the restored 650-seat Stanley Theatre (renamed the Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage
Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage
The Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage is a landmark theatre at 12th and Granville Street in Vancouver, British Columbia which serves as the main stage for the Arts Club Theatre Company. The Stanley first opened as a movie theatre in December 1930, and showed movies for over sixty years before...
in 2005), a former movie theater
Movie theater
A movie theater, cinema, movie house, picture theater, film theater is a venue, usually a building, for viewing motion pictures ....
. Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage opened with Swing, followed by Hamlet
Hamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
in 1998.
Seymour Street Stage
The 250-seat Seymour Street Stage opened in 1964 on Seymour and Davie Street—upstairs above a former auto repair shop and Gospel Hall—and became an instant theatrical institution. The first production, Moss Hart's Light Up the Sky, won high praise. The Seymour Street Stage was closed for demolition in 1991.Granville Island Stage
The 460-seat Granville Island Stage, opened as the Arts Club Mainstage in 1979 at 1585 Johnston Street on Granville Island, Vancouver. The Arts Club became one of the earliest landmarks on Granville Island and a personal triumph for Managing Director Bill Millerd who had always dreamed of having a theatre on the waterfront. Now the theatre is home base for a company with three theatres and an adjoining lounge, the Backstage Lounge. The company regularly tours its shows throughout the province.New Revue Stage, formerly Revue Cabaret
The 225-seat Arts Club Revue Cabaret, next door to Granville Island Stage, opened in 1983 as the only permanent theatre for musical revues in Vancouver. An Evening with Ruth and Leon, a concert of songs performed by local stars Leon BibbLeon Bibb
Leon Bibb is an American news anchor for WEWS-TV in Cleveland, OH and was a member of the BGSU Board of Trustees...
and Ruth Nichol was first featured at the Revue Cabaret. In October of 1995, the Revue Cabaret closed as a cabaret style theatre and reopened as the New Revue Stage. Then in 1997, the New Revue Stage went to Vancouver TheatreSports League until February of 2010 when Arts Club reclaimed and redesigned the theatre to present new works suitable at an intimate space.
Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage
Stanley Theatre, built in 1931, ran its last movie, Fantasia, and shut its doors on September 25, 1991. It re-opened in October 1998 under the auspices of the Arts Club Theatre with Dean Regan's hit production of Swing. Beginning with the 2000-2001 season, the Industrial Alliance Pacific Life Insurance Company became a sponsor of the theatre, and on April 5, 2005 it became the Stanley Industrial Alliance StageStanley Industrial Alliance Stage
The Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage is a landmark theatre at 12th and Granville Street in Vancouver, British Columbia which serves as the main stage for the Arts Club Theatre Company. The Stanley first opened as a movie theatre in December 1930, and showed movies for over sixty years before...
, a newly renovated art deco theatre, beautifully updated, a 650-seat house that will be home to musicals such as My Fair Lady, Swing and Sweeney Todd, revitalized classics such as Hamlet, and comedies ranging from Easy Money to Art. The restoration of the venue received a 1999 City of Vancouver Heritage Award.
Bill Millerd
Since 1972, Bill Millerd has been the Artistic Managing Director of Vancouver's Arts Club Theatre Company. During his time with the company, he has expanded its operations to include year-round programming on two stages, as well as regional and national tours. During his tenure, over 330 plays have been produced, one hundred of which Bill himself has directed. Under his leadership, the theatre has staged over 115 Canadian works, including more than 65 premieres of new Canadian plays.Millerd is a Governor of the National Theatre School of Canada and has received recognition with the UBC Alumni of Distinction Award, Jessie Richardson Theatre Award for Career Achievement and the Order of Canada in 1994. Today, he is the longest-serving artistic director in Canadian theatre.
Notable Actors and Playwrights
Brent CarverBrent Carver
Brent Carver is a Canadian actor.Carver is known for a variety of stage and film roles, including The Wars, Kronborg: 1582, Lilies, Larry's Party, Elizabeth Rex, Millennium, Shadow Dancing, and Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love...
, Janet Wright
Janet Wright
Janet Wright is a Canadian actress and theatre director. She is best known for her role as Emma Leroy on the hit Canadian sitcom Corner Gas. She won a 2003 Gemini Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Supporting Role in a Dramatic Program or Mini-Series for her role in Betrayed...
, Lally Cadeau
Lally Cadeau
Lally Cadeau is a Canadian actress. An accomplished stage and television actress, she has been a mainstay with the Stratford Festival since 1998. She is best known for her role as Janet King in the CBC Television series Road to Avonlea...
, Nicola Cavendish
Nicola Cavendish
Nicola Cavendish is an English-born Canadian theatre and film actress. She has won a Genie Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role for the 1991 film The Grocer's Wife and a Gemini Award nomination for 1998 film The Sleep Room.Cavendish was born in Cirencester, United Kingdom,...
, Morris Panych
Morris Panych
Stephen Morris Panych is a Canadian playwright, director and actor.Morris Panych was born in Calgary and grew up in Edmonton. He studied at Northern Alberta Institute of Technology, and the University of British Columbia...
, Michael Bublé
Michael Bublé
Michael Steven Bublé is a Canadian singer. He has won several awards, including three Grammy Awards and multiple Juno Awards. His first album reached the top ten in Canada and the UK. He found worldwide commercial success with his 2005 album It's Time, and his 2007 album Call Me Irresponsible was...
, Ann Mortifee
Ann Mortifee
Ann Mortifee, CM is a Canadian-based singer-songwriter, writer and speaker. After emigrating to Canada in childhood, she spent her youth in Vancouver, British Columbia. At the beginning of her musical career, she joined the cast of the original Vancouver production of The Ecstasy of Rita Joe...
, and Michael J. Fox
Michael J. Fox
Michael J. Fox, OC is a Canadian American actor, author, producer, activist and voice-over artist. With a film and television career spanning from the late 1970s, Fox's roles have included Marty McFly from the Back to the Future trilogy ; Alex P...
.(Henighan, 2000)